


too large for any moment

by starlight_sugar



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 02:43:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16966191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: But it’s still there, in the back of Bacta’s mind. He knows what a good Kwoon fight is like. He knows what drift compatibility feels like, and even if he never does anything about this, he knows that he and Leenik could be compatible.





	too large for any moment

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. This was originally posted on Tumblr on December 7th and is being cross-posted upon request. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above.
> 
> The title of this fic comes from [Re-done](https://youtu.be/3KM78YAiGWc) by Modern Baseball.
> 
> With thanks to Tam, who helped me work out the pieces to this puzzle.

“Bacta.” Leenik leans in, so close that Bacta has to pull back to keep looking at his face properly. “We should do the Kwoon room thing.” **  
**

“The Kwoon room thing,” Bacta repeats. He hasn’t been in a Kwoon room in years. He might’ve sworn to himself that he’d never do it again, but it’s hard to remember. It’s been years, and he’s drunk, and Leenik’s drunk, and he’s never seen Leenik this relaxed before. “Do you wanna… do the staff thing?”

Leenik nods, so emphatically that he collapses against the wall behind him, still nodding. “I think it’d be fun fighting you,” he says sincerely. “I wanna do the thing with the staffs and I wanna see what happens.”

“We should see what happens!” Bacta pushes himself to his feet, and he’s pleased to see that he’s steady enough to stand. Walking might be harder, and fighting to determine if he and Leenik are drift compatible will definitely be harder still, but if this is what Leenik wants, then damn it, Bacta is going to figure out how to do it for him. “Let’s do the staffs.”

“Staves.” Leenik frowns, but he takes Bacta’s hand and lets Bacta pull him upright. “Stavs?”

“Staves,” Bacta repeats, and tugs Leenik towards the door. “Let’s stave.”

There is no such thing as a night off in the Shatterdome, not really. But there are nights that are better to get drunk than others, and they’d decided that this is one of them. There are additional J-Tech staffers supporting them from other domes, and Bacta has been tired of… well, of being tired. He decided that he and Leenik, as heads of J-Tech, deserved a day off. So they’d gotten drunk, because they couldn’t leave the dome.

Bacta’s one of the newer people at this particular dome. He’d been transferred because his old marshal didn’t want to deal with him anymore - or because the dome needed more support in J-Tech, depending on which paperwork you look at - and it’s been a bumpy adjustment. He’s known Leenik for over a year now, and Leenik is still painfully reserved around him sometimes. Bacta had half expected him to say no when he’d suggested a drinking night. He hadn’t even been sure if Leenik drinks.

By the time they get to the Kwoon room, both of them still wearing pajamas and socks, they’re a little less stumble-drunk. Bacta’s pretty steady on his feet by the time he has a staff in his hand, looking at Leenik across the room. “You ever done this before?”

To his surprise, Leenik nods. “Been a while,” he says, and shifts his grip on the staff. “I used to be pretty good.”

“So did I,” Bacta says. Leenik cocks his head, looking curious, and Bacta shrugs. “I had a whole life before I ended up here.”

“Right.” Leenik grins. “New Zealand.”

Leenik also had a whole life before the Shatterdome that Bacta doesn’t know anything about. He’s never really asked, because Leenik is… cagey, to say the least. But he’s holding the staff like he knows what he’s doing with it, and he looks completely at home in the Kwoon room. Bacta wishes, with a sudden ferocity, that he knew Leenik, really knew him.

He lifts his staff to a ready position. “First to five?”

“First to five,” Leenik agrees. He steps back, and Bacta barely has time to anticipate his next move before Leenik charges at him and swings his staff for Bacta’s side.

Bacta side-steps it and jabs his staff behind him, towards Leenik, but Leenik is already sweeping around to Bacta’s other side, shifting his staff from hand to hand. Bacta wheels backwards and lifts his own staff.

Leenik sweeps his staff towards Bacta’s chest right as Bacta lowers his, stopping just an inch from Leenik’s head, and Leenik’s staff freezes just as the tip of it touches Bacta’s sternum. For a second, Bacta is too stunned to move or breathe. Judging from the look on Leenik’s face, he is too.

“Draw,” Bacta manages to say, after a few seconds of heavy breathing. “That-”

“Was really fucking good,” Leenik finishes, eyes wide.

Bacta’s face splits into a grin. “Thank Christ,” he mumbles, and Leenik only grins wider. “You think we can manage that again?”

Leenik pulls his staff back, miming the motion of sheathing a sword as he steps away. “We should find out,” he says. Every inch of him is buzzing with awareness, and Bacta feels drawn to him, like he can’t look away. He hasn’t felt this way in a long time.

Bacta copies the sheathing motion, old training taking over, and moves to an opposite corner of the room. He steps back, eyes scanning the room, and lands on the doorway for a second.

Marshal Luroon, standing in the door, arches an eyebrow at him. She looks like she was likely on her way somewhere else. Bacta considers asking why she’s stopping to watch, but then Leenik shifts his weight, and all of his attention is back on Leenik.

“Is a draw a point for each of us or no points?” Leenik asks, doing an idle figure-eight with his staff.

“Point for each,” Bacta suggests. “More fun that way.”

Leenik grins sharply. “Good,” he says, and lunges forward with his staff. Bacta thinks that he’s grinning back, just as face-splitting and raw, as he dodges.

#

They don’t do it again, is the thing. Not that Bacta particularly wants to - he hasn’t done a serious Kwoon fight in a few years, and he’s not sure he’s ready to do it again - but Leenik seems… worried about it. He’s a little cagey around Bacta the next day, and the day after that, and the day after, until Bacta makes a pointedly casual comment about not being interested in piloting again. After that, Leenik relaxes more than Bacta has ever seen him.

But it’s still there, in the back of Bacta’s mind. He knows what a good Kwoon fight is like. He knows what drift compatibility feels like, and even if he never does anything about this, he knows that he and Leenik could be compatible. It’s the kind of knowledge that comes without intent. He’s not even sure that Leenik realized how compatible they were, but he knows. He remembers.

The problem is that it turns out Marshal Luroon remembers, too.

It’s an emergency situation in every sense: all of their main pilots are on another continent for some ridiculous press junket. There are Jaegers flying in to support them, but all of the backup teams are deployed already and doing poorly.

Lyn must be getting desperate, because she turns and meets Bacta’s eyes across mission control.

He realizes what’s about to happen just before she opens her mouth. “Marshal-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Lyn says, voice dangerously tight. She points at him, then at Leenik. “You two, get in a Jaeger.”

Leenik’s mouth drops open in shock before he regains himself. “I don’t think-”

“This isn’t-”

“This is life and death.” Lyn’s voice is deathly quiet. “Do you understand that? This is not about what either of you want. This is about damage control. This is about minimizing casualties. You are going to suit up, and we are going to calibrate you, and we are going to hope that it works. And either way we will deal with it, do you understand?”

Leenik looks away. Bacta has to unclench his jaw, with a monumental effort, but he grits out a terse “Yes, ma’am.”

There are lines in Lyn’s face that he doesn’t remember being there when he started at the Shatterdome. She turns around to say something to Tryst, who looks grimmer than Bacta has ever seen him.

Bacta sighs. He turns to Leenik, to say that they should get ready or ask if he’s okay, and is completely unsurprised to see that Leenik isn’t standing there anymore. He heaves out a sigh and leaves mission control.

Leenik is, as expected, in the J-Tech garage. He whirls around on Bacta as soon as he enters, with anger and betrayal and panic all flickering across his face in turns. “You told her?”

“She saw us.”

“She  _saw_  us and you didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t think this would happen.” Bacta has to fight to keep his voice low and steady - and it’s barely steady, with a tremor rocketing through it. “Leenik, you have to believe me, I don’t want to do this.”

“But you said yes,” he says, verging on hysterical. “You said yes, and I- I can’t do this, I said I’d never-”

“We don’t have another choice.”

“We have a choice! That choice is staying here, and saying no, and dealing with the consequences, because it’s not worth it.”

“Isn’t it worth it to you to save those people’s lives?”

Leenik’s face contorts into something miserable. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“I know it’s not.” Bacta has to fight the urge to reach out to Leenik. He knows Leenik wouldn’t want it, would say he doesn’t need it, but his entire body is alight with the need to be… closer. He puts his hands behind his back and clasps them, gripping as tightly as he can manage. “The last person I was in a Jaeger with died.”

Leenik visibly takes a step back, stunned. “You used to be a pilot?”

“A long time ago.” Bacta twists his hands, trying to keep himself grounded. “We only went on a couple missions together before kaiju attacked our dome. She was so focused on the evacuation effort that she didn’t realize-” his throat tightens, and he forces himself to swallow down the tears. They don’t have time for him to relive this. “She died. I was ruled not fit for duty, so I joined up with J-Tech. I never wanted to pilot a Jaeger with anyone else.”

“Wanted,” Leenik says warily. “What do you want now?”

Bacta huffs out a laugh. “I want to stop more people from dying.”

“I-” Leenik pauses and gulps. “My brother-”

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” Bacta says, and Leenik sags in relief. “If you really, really can’t do this, we’ll find an excuse. But I think we need to try.”

“I know we do,” Leenik sighs. “I just- I’m afraid.”

“Of being in a Jaeger again?”

“That you won’t like me after you really know who I am.”

“Leenik,” Bacta sighs, and he moves forward without thinking. Leenik stays in place, trembling as Bacta’s hands land on his shoulders. “You’re my friend. There is very, very little that could be in your head that will change that.”

Leenik stares up at Bacta, eyes wide and searching. At last, he nods slowly, and Bacta’s hands relax on his shoulders.

Bacta smooths his hands down Leenik’s arms and draws them back to his sides. “Okay,” he says, and Leenik takes a deep breath. “Let’s go suit up.”

“Let’s go suit up,” Leenik echoes. He looks tense, still, but he looks Bacta up and down and then relaxes. “We’re going to do this.”

“We’re going to do this,” Bacta agrees, like it’s a finality, a fact, and Leenik offers up a terse, nervous smile. It’s the best thing Bacta has ever seen.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this fic, you can read a little more about the "expanded universe," as it were, [right here.](https://waveridden.tumblr.com/private/180904652798/tumblr_pje4k8TcXU1wnlah0)
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr and Twitter @waveridden!


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